Liberal Initiative, Left Block, PAN and Free have presented proposals to reduce VAT on bicycles from 23% to 6%.
The State Budget for 2022 (OE 2022) is currently being discussed at the specialty level. After the Government presented the State Budget proposal 2022 and after it was approved in generality, the parties in Parliament presented more than 1400 amendment proposals. Among these, there are at least 11 proposals directly related to the promotion of bicycle useand include some of the proposals for the State Budget 2022 that the MUBi - Association for Urban Mobility on Bicycles presented, in early April, to the government and parties in the Assembly of the Republic.
Liberal Initiative, Bloco de Esquerda, PAN and Livre have presented proposals to reduce VAT on bicycles from 23% to 6%. Other proposals for the 2022 State Budget include support for the implementation and expansion of bike-sharing systems, the creation and improvement of bicycle parking lots, increased funding for National Strategy for Active Cycling Mobility and the strengthening and expansion of the Environmental Fund's support for the purchase of bicycles.
The Liberal Initiative, the Left Block, the PAN and the Free submitted proposals for amendment (proposals 798C, 525C, 672C e 872Crespectively) for reduce VAT on bicycles, including electric-assisted bicycles, from the current maximum rate of 23% to the reduced rate of 6%according to the new European VAT directive now allows Member States. This is one of several measures to encourage walking and cycling that the European Commission, with the aim of saving energy, proposes in the plan REPowerEU to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the ecological transition in the face of the energy crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As MUBi recently indicatedIf you were to lower the VAT on bicycles to 6%, it would cost less per year than lowering the ISP costs per week to the Portuguese state coffers.
The Free (proposal 975C) also proposes the creation of a program to encourage the installation and expansion of municipal and inter-municipal bike sharing systemswith a budget allocation of 5 million euros in 2022. In turn, the NAP (proposal 414C) wants a program to be created, financed through the Environmental Fund, to support for the creation or improvement of 500 bicycle parks next to public buildings and services.
The State Budget proposal 2022 presented by the Government foresees only two items in the scope of bicycle mobility. These are 400,000 euros for the implementation of the 51 measures of the National Strategy for Cycling Mobility (ENMAC) 2020-2030 and the Environmental Fund program to support the purchase of low-emission vehiclesThe project is already running, with almost two thousand applications received for electric bicycles.
Regarding the implementation of ENMAC 2020-2030the PAN and Livre (proposals 38C e 968C-1 e 968C-2) propose to increase the amount to one million euros. Both parties also want the creation of a dedicated team to manage and organize this Strategy, with the PAN proposing to hire 10 people. Livre also proposes that the Institute for Mobility and Transport, which coordinates the Strategy, develop a training and capacity building program for technicians from municipalities and state agencies in the area of active mobility.
As far as support from the Environmental Fundboth the Livre and the PAN (proposals 29C-1 e 29C-2 e 816C) want number of conventional bicycles covered increases from 1500 to 5000with Free suggesting that the support rises from 20% to 50% and from a maximum of EUR 100 to EUR 200 in this category. Free also considers that the program should be extended to bicycles adapted for people with special needs and kits conversion to electric bicycles.
The PSD and PCP did not present any proposal in the scope of active mobility, and the PS did not put forward any new measures beyond those already in the State Budget 2022.
The number of proposals favorable to bicycle mobility is higher than it was even a few years ago - only two were presented in the discussion of the 2018 State Budget, MUBi points out. "The majority of the parties still do not seem aware of the need for a radical change in the mobility paradigm, in order for us to face the energy crisis and for Portugal to meet the European targets for Greenhouse Gas emissions, in this and the next decades".says the association in a communiqué.
The specialty votes on the proposals for the State Budget 2022 will take place between May 23 and 26, and the final overall vote on the State Budget will take place on the morning of May 27. The proposals to reduce VAT on bicycles are voted on Wednesday the 25th, and the remaining proposals here voted one day earlier, on Tuesday.
